By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
FORKS — Four second-half goals, including a hat trick by freshman Tony Hernandez-Flores, spurred Forks to a come-from-behind Evergreen League boys soccer win over the Grizzlies on Monday at Spartan Stadium.
The victory keeps Forks (3-0-0, 8-0-1) atop the Evergreen League standings.
“Hoquiam is always a sharp team that is well-coached with good players,” Forks coach Joe Morton said. “They know what they are doing.”
The Spartans trailed 2-0 at halftime against the Grizzlies, the defending league champs, before rallying.
“They scored off of a penalty kick in the 25th minute, and then right after that they got a breakaway down the left side and got another one on us,” Morton said.
Morton said he made three points at halftime: This was the first leg of effectively a two-game playoff series against Hoquiam and Forks needed to get some offense to match the Grizzlies’ road goals; that the Spartans had been down by two goals before at haltime and made a comeback (to tie Coupeville 3-3) and that Forks has scored two goals or more in every game this season and if they recorded 15 shots on goal they would be fine.
Morton said Forks “kept the pressure on” from the start of the second half.
Hernandez-Flores scored his first goal on an assist by Oscar Gonzalez in the 44th minute and notched the equalizer in the 64th minute on an assist by Hugo Sandoval.
William Geronimo netted the eventual game-winner with 14 minutes left in the game off an assist by Samuel Gomez.
“He was feeling pretty good about himself after he got that goal,” Morton said.
Geronimo was moved up from defender to midfielder in the second half and was tasked with shutting down Hoquiam’s speedy left wing.
“We slowed them down a bunch in the second half,” Morton said. “They had some looks but no real heart-attack moments.”
Hernandez-Flores added his third goal with two minutes remaining.
Morton said his players enjoyed the post-game celebration.
“They were beside themselves, the stands were full and the town is rallying behind these kids,” he said. “It gets me emotional to talk about.”
Forks will host Elma (1-1-0, 3-6-0) for senior night at 6 p.m. Thursday.
